• For more information about the tattoo removal laser at Salmon Creek Plastic Surgery, visit www.salmoncreekps.com/procedures/tattoo-removal.php or call 360-823-0860.
Gloria Hellsund was diagnosed with breast cancer 16 years ago.
She underwent two surgeries to remove the cancerous cells from her left breast, and she endured 6½ weeks of exhausting — and, at times, painful — radiation treatment.
While Hellsund’s body has been free from cancer for many years, she’s had six, pinpoint-sized reminders of a time in her life she would rather not think about daily. Sixteen years ago, Hellsund’s chest was marked with small tattoos used to align the radiation machine to a precise location on her breast.
“They’re a reminder,” Hellsund said. “I didn’t like looking at them all the time.”
Soon, Hellsund will no longer have those physical reminders.
In February, Hellsund, 64, underwent breast reconstruction surgery to correct the unevenness in her breasts. Her plastic surgeon, Dr. Rick Green at Salmon Creek Plastic Surgery, noticed the small tattoos. Green told Hellsund he could use new laser tattoo removal technology to erase her breast cancer reminders.
The Camas woman “jumped on the bandwagon.”
“Getting the breast reconstruction and getting rid of the tattoos kind of lets it all go,” Hellsund said.
“It’s going to be nice when they’re all healed not to see the radiation tattoos and have that reminder to look at every day,” she said.
Salmon Creek Plastic Surgery is offering the radiation tattoo removal for free to any man or woman living with the physical reminders of cancer treatment, Green said.
“It’s just something we can do since we have the technology that doesn’t really cost us much,” he said.
The technology is new to the clinic and the market. Salmon Creek Plastic Surgery got the Cutera enlighten laser in late January for general tattoo removal. Unlike older tattoo removal lasers, the new laser delivers energy to the pigmented skin very quickly, Green said.
Older lasers would essentially create a wound where the pigmented skin was expelled, creating a scar, Green said. The new laser breaks the tattoo ink into smaller and smaller fragments with each treatment. Then the body absorbs the particles, leaving the skin free from ink and scars, he said.
“In the past, the laser energy couldn’t be delivered fast enough to break it up small enough,” Green said. “Think of taking a boulder and turning it into sand. That’s what it’s doing.”
Removing a tattoo typically requires three to six treatments spread out over four to six weeks. Treatment for the small radiation tattoos takes just a couple of minutes; larger tattoos take five to 10 minutes, Green said.
Certain ink colors, such as yellow or neon green, are not as easily absorbed and usually need more treatments. Blue, black and dark green inks — the colors typically used for radiation tattoos — are absorbed more easily, Green said.
A couple of Hellsund’s radiation tattoos were nearly removed after just one treatment, and the process was painless, she said.
Hellsund never would have thought to seek out tattoo removal. Over the years, she grew used to the tattoos, even the one near her collarbone that often drew comments from friends thinking she needed to be checked for skin cancer.
But now that the radiation tattoos are disappearing, Hellsund is happy to see them go.
“If you’ve survived for quite a while — and you worry about that always — getting those tattoos removed almost is like a gold star, an accomplishment that you’ve done it; you’re cured, and you’re going on with your life,” she said.
